IT’S MASKS ON TILL 6/15
California continues mandate rule through end of tiered reopening
On Monday, California shrugged off federal masking guidelines released late last week, indicating that faces should remain covered in crowded places, especially if they’re indoors, until June 15, the date the state intends to end its tiered reopening system.
That eventuality continues to look more likely every day. Monday’s COVID-19 report listed just 47 new cases in San Diego County, the lowest single-day total since 43 cases were added to the local pandemic total April 12. Daily totals have not yet been consistently under 100, so nobody’s quite ready to declare a new case trend just yet.
The state has said that scrapping the tier system and allowing full occupancy once again will depend on hospitalizations remaining low. That was certainly the case in San Diego County on Sunday when hospitals reported 118 patients in beds with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 diagnoses.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s
health and human services secretary, said during a midday news conference that his department does not disagree with the evidence of lower coronavirus transmission cited last week and over the weekend by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the main reason for its unexpected ruling.
But he said that California can benefit from another month of vaccinations, also giving businesses a little more time to prepare.
“It’s in no way saying that the science or the direction by the CDC is wrong or there was a challenge to it,” Ghaly said. “It’s really just giving ourselves across the state some additional time to have it implemented with a degree of integrity with a continued focus on protecting the public’s health.”
Nathan Fletcher, chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, quickly released a statement Monday afternoon making it clear that local government will follow the state’s lead.
“Continuing the mask requirements for a few more weeks provides an added layer of protection as we work on getting more San Diegans vaccinated,” Fletcher said. “Masks definitely help more than they hurt.”
The CDC guidance indicates that those who are fully vaccinated — two weeks past their final dose — can generally move through life unmasked, even in crowded indoor situations, though some venues, such as health care, still require face coverings.
Under the federal guidance, unvaccinated or partly vaccinated people are still asked to wear masks in almost all indoor settings and most outdoor venues when interacting with people from outside their household who may not be vaccinated.
David Cohn, co-founder of the Cohn Restaurant Group, one of the largest fine dining consortiums in San Diego, said Monday that the opinion should help in situations where patrons may cite the CDC guidance but ignore the state rule. Having no immediate statement from Ghaly or the governor last week, he said, caused some confusion when patrons arrived with their faces uncovered even though the state’s mask mandate was still in place.
“It was a tough situation for restaurants over the weekend, and it will continue to be difficult,” Cohn said.
He added that his locations will continue asking patrons to keep covered until they’re seated.
In a short statement, the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park said that its visitors have been “understanding and compliant about wearing masks” since the CDC guidance appeared last week.
Tracy Spahr, a spokesperson for SeaWorld San Diego, said that most visitors over the weekend arrived masked, though a handful had to be reminded that masks are still required in California.
Some large grocery chains, including Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Costco, said last week that they would begin allowing their customers to shop without masks if they were fully vaccinated. It was not clear Monday afternoon how Trader Joe’s would respond. Walmart and Costco’s announcements included language that masks should still be worn in states where local government requires them.
Ghaly said that “we expect businesses in California to adhere to where the state is and move to implement these standards, or prepare for them, on June 15 as opposed to now.”
Ghaly also noted that California’s guidance is “not a ceiling on the restrictions — in some ways it’s a floor,” and individual businesses or local health jurisdictions can ultimately opt to either delay relaxing mask requirements or maintain them in certain instances.